Students from Akron school see
similarities with Northern
Cheyenne after trip to Montana
By Steve Lannen
http://www.ohio.com/

Northern
Cheyenne Reservation,
MT: Up a slight hill behind the
pen for the horses, blankets and
tarps were draped over curved
branches. They were fashioned
into a small sweat lodge, about
the size and shape of a large,
domed tent.

Inside the sweat lodge, rocks
heated by a nearby fire hissed
in the darkness, filling the
enclosure with steam and ash.

Seventh- and eighth-graders from
Akron’s Lippman School sat in
silence, breathing in the steam.
Hours earlier, they had left
Akron by plane and now were
taking part in a tradition of
their hosts on the Northern
Cheyenne Indian Reservation, 100
miles east of Billings in
southeastern Montana.

The sweat lodge represents the
church, the branches are the
womb of a woman, water
represents life, and prayers are
carried out by the steam,
Northern Cheyenne tribal member
Pete Roundstone explained. Doing
a “sweat,” Roundstone said,
“helps me to remain humble, to
remember not to go back to my
mischievous ways.”

In the darkness, Roundstone
shook a rattle and offered up
prayers. The steam surrounded
the students and sweat formed on
every inch of bare skin. Most
students sat through multiple
rounds with only short water
breaks in between.

The
sweat set the tone for nine
Lippman students and their
teachers, who learned about
Northern Cheyenne culture and
history over an intense four
days in late May and early June.

With the steam, singing, prayers
and shared experience, Maison
Cunningham, 13, found the sweat
lodge “a powerful place.” The
eighth-grader said he prayed for
peace and enlightenment.

The steam “kind of just cleared
you up to focus on what you
wanted to focus on,” he said.

The journey to Montana was more
than a class trip, said Sam
Chestnut, head of the Lippman
School, a K-8 private day school
in Akron that teaches a
multicultural curriculum with an
emphasis on Jewish tradition and
universal values.

Understanding each other

The trip’s purpose was to create
a long-term cross-cultural
exchange between the Ohio
students and students on the
reservation. In early October,
Northern Cheyenne Tribal School
students will visit the Lippman
students in Akron, study Jewish
rituals, take part in the Jewish
harvest celebration of Sukkot
and learn about life in Ohio.

The
Jewish and Northern Cheyenne
traditions might not appear to
have much in common, but in the
modern world, both groups
struggle to preserve their
traditions and pass them along.
By studying another culture,
students can better understand
their own and feel more positive
about it, Chestnut said.

Eventually, Chestnut hopes
Northern Cheyenne input could
help Akron reconsider its own
Native American history, which
includes the site of a one-time
trading route, the Portage Path.

Chestnut is connected with the
Northern Cheyenne through his
father, Steve Chestnut, who has
been general counsel to the
Northern Cheyenne for nearly 40
years and is an honorary tribal
member.

“We struggle with some of the
same issues, but in different
ways. We hope we can help the
next generation feel good about
themselves and keep their
culture,” Sam Chestnut said.

Life on the reservation can be
tough for the roughly 7,000
(5,000 are tribal members) who
live there. Unemployment
averages about 70 percent. Many
go elsewhere looking for work,
leaving children to be raised by
one parent or a grandparent.
Almost all students eat free or
reduced-price lunches. Drugs and
alcohol are never far away.

“The
problems we face here are
similar to what you might call
inner-city problems,” said
Yulberton Alec Sandcrane, a
Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council
member.

Today, there is a real concern
over a disconnect with the
youth, tribal member Otto
Braided Hair said. The younger
generation is not learning
tribal history, which has always
been passed down through oral
tradition. Cultural
assimilation, peer pressure and
lack of positive interaction
with adults all contribute, he
said.

“A lot of the culture has been
stomped out,” said Barbara
Braided Hair, Otto’s wife, a
tribal member and bank manager
on the reservation.

She hopes the ongoing exchange
will help tribal students “feel
proud and realize they are
blessed to live where they live.
... It’s beyond just bringing
the kids together. It’s bringing
healing, too, to two cultures.”

Making connections

The
yellow school bus rolled past
the grassy hills and buttes that
make up the countryside in this
part of Montana. They had
exchanged pen pal letters, but
the Lippman students and the
Northern Cheyenne Tribal School
students seemed quiet and a bit
uneasy in the presence of new
faces. Some students stared out
the window. A couple jammed
earbuds into their ears.

Together, they were visiting two
battlefields that witnessed
fierce fighting between Native
Americans and the U.S. military
in June 1876: the Battle of the
Rosebud (called Girl Who Saved
Her Brother by the Cheyenne),
and the more famous Little
Bighorn.

Tribal School teacher’s aide
Emmanuel Pine said most of the
Cheyenne students’ ancestors
fought in the battles, but most
of the students did not know the
history or visit the sites.

As they toured each site, the
students remained largely
silent, listening to the guides
and covering their heads from
the incessant wind.

“Where you are standing is where
Crow scouts lined up long enough
to hold off the Cheyenne,” said
Michel Olson, a Billings man who
worked to designate the first
site a National Historical
Landmark.

Despite treaties that ceded land
to the tribes, Gen. George
Armstrong Custer had found gold,
and the fight for gold and land
was on, he said.

“It wasn’t about people hating
people. It was about taking
resources,” Olson said.

Music
brings kids together

Back in the bus, the ice broke
little by little as seat mates
asked about each other or
someone began to clown around,
drawing the ire of the teacher
and giggles from students.

The driver put the radio on and
nearly all the students sang
along to hits such as Flo Rida’s
Low and One Direction’s What
Makes You Beautiful. No matter
where they live, teens know pop
music lyrics.

Initially,
“I think they were nervous,”
said Olivia Diamond, 12, a
Lippman seventh-grader. “I think
the music brought us together.”

Ariel Ohayon, another
seventh-grader, agreed that the
students eventually felt
comfortable together. “I think I
made a friend, maybe two of
them,” he said.

Looking toward October, when the
Cheyenne students visit, Ariel
said he hopes they can see the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and
Museum and the Great Lakes
Science Center, which has many
interactive science exhibits,
both in Cleveland.

“The kids are just kids like us,
not much different,” said Maison
Cunningham, the Lippman
eighth-grader. “From all you’ve
read and watched, you’d think
they’d be different, but they
act the same, they’re interested
in the same things.”

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